The 13th Tablet

Jack and Mina arrived early at the Ari shul and decided to have a look at the small recess where Ari was said to have met the prophet Elijah.

‘Mina, we need to be really careful,’ Jack reminded her. ‘Wheatley’s probably on his way to Safed as we speak. Hopefully he won’t go sightseeing after failing to find the tablet.’

‘Right. I might not have your training but I can be discreet, I assure you.’

An old man walked into the synagogue and sized them up. He walked straight up to them.

‘Josh, Miriam? Are you the youngsters who wanted to meet me?’

‘Yes,’ said Mina, surprised at the old man’s New York accent. ‘Are you from New York?’

‘Yes. A long time ago, mind you. Let’s sit down over there.’ They walked to a bench to the side. ‘So, how can I help you?’

‘We’ve been told by Ezra from the Abuhav shul that you are the person to speak to about Benjamin of Tudela.’

His eyes widened a little, and he seemed almost annoyed.

‘What else did he say?’

‘Nothing’ she lied.

His face brightened slightly.

‘Well, what would you like to know?’

‘I am PhD student at Columbia and I am researching the travels of Benjamin of Tudela, especially with regard to his discovery of Nineveh, as my work focuses on the first European travellers to visit Mesopotamia.’

The old man nodded without saying a word, as seems to be the habit of all sages when listening to young scholars.

‘I learned from unpublished travel notes by Tudela that he sent a letter to a certain Mordechai in Safed. Now, until then I really believed Tudela when he wrote in the Book of Travels that there were no Jews in Safed. Obviously, if he sent something here later, all the way from Spain, he was being untruthful. So I thought there might be a small but exciting mystery to uncover here.’

‘When is Tudela thought to have passed by Safed?’

‘117 °C.E.’

‘Hmm. Young lady, that would have been about the time the crusaders came here and built their citadel on the hill. It was their custom to expel the Jewish or Arab populations from their newly built fortress cities.’

Mina smacked her forehead. ‘What an idiot! Of course, the crusaders. Why didn’t I think of that? I was so engrossed with Tudela’s personal voyage that I overlooked the context. So there is no mystery. Maybe there were just one or two Jewish families still living within the city at the time of the crusaders. Maybe he wasn’t the author of this passage. End of story.’

The old man looked very troubled. ‘Not quite. There is more to this story than you imagine. But first, what are these travel notes you’re referring to? I’ve been researching Tudela for a long time and never heard of them.’

‘There’s a good reason for that. I found them by accident in the British Library while working on the compiled manuscript. These travel notes were never inserted into the canonical edition of Tudela’s Book of Travels.

‘Fascinating, who’d have known…’ said Eli.

‘It seems that Tudela hoped his friend in Safed would pursue a quest about an important item he had learned about in Mosul.’

‘I think we have both been looking at the same story from two different ends,’ said Eli.

Mina and Jack looked at him in surprise, then with anticipation.

‘When I first arrived in Safed, I was still a young bible student. Every day I learned more on the saintly scholars who shaped our destiny. I was especially interested in the Ari and his disciples. I read avidly, day and night. Blessed was the time when my eyesight was keen and my hand steady. Never mind, as you probably know, the Holy Ari didn’t write much himself, his disciples wrote down all his teachings.’

‘No, I didn’t know that’, said Jack ironically, ‘but please go on,’ he added quickly, after Mina kicked him in the shin to shut him up.

‘Well’, continued the old man, ‘when Chaim Vital, Ari’s favourite disciple wrote the famous book The Tree of Life, which compiled his master’s teachings, there were only manuscripts, no printed copies. Each disciple had to make a vow, under the threat of excommunication, not to allow any copy to made and sent to a foreign land and to keep the knowledge secret. It did get out eventually and was published, but I always wondered how accurate the printed copies were.’

Eli took a deep breath and continued: ‘After years of patience and dedication, I was finally introduced to a small group of men in Safed who let me read from one of the original manuscripts. There I was, in a small room, reading feverishly through the ancient pages of The Tree of Life, when I suddenly came across a short marginalia, you know, a tiny commentary in the margin. It was so strange that to this day it is still branded in my memory.’

‘What did it say, Eli?’ asked an excited Mina.

Eli quoted: ‘Was it God’s plan? Rabbi Benjamin the Traveller divided our community, but the Lion cast out the Dark Ones. Beware of their return. In the holy room.’

‘It’s like a warning in riddles’ said Mina feeling a shiver of excitement run down her spine, ‘but how do you interpret it?’

‘Well, it took me some time to figure it out and unfortunately I was never allowed access to the manuscript again but I am pretty sure “Rabbi Benjamin the Traveller” is Benjamin of Tudela who wrote about his travels in the 12th century. As The Tree of Life was written over 400 years after his death, Tudela couldn’t have divided the community in person, it must be something he did or wrote. Something concerning God’s plan.

Eli took in another deep breath and continued: ‘I read Tudela’s Book of Travels over and over again but I never found out how he divided their community, nor who the Dark Ones were, nor why one should beware their return. But, it is clear that they were evil enough to be “cast out by the Lion”, that is to say excommunicated by the Holy Ari himself. The last part of the passage troubled me for days on end. There is only one “holy room” that makes sense here and it’s in the Ari’s synagogue. It’s the recess in which it is said that the Ari pondered deeply on the mysteries of Kabbalah and received instructions from the prophet Elijah himself. But I have never found anything there, not even peace of mind.’

Jack and Mina looked at the old man in wonder. Mina’s research was taking the strangest turn.

‘Still, you were right’, Mina added passionately, ‘this commentary you read in the margin of The Tree of Life is verified by the travel notes I found in the British Library: Tudela clearly states that he wrote to Safed about an object of the greatest importance to mankind.’

The old man looked at her and sighed. ‘Don’t mistake my tone for a lack of enthusiasm at your endeavours: whatever the content of the letter Tudela sent to Safed, it must have been quite significant to divide such a learned community. But I spent many years gathering useless information on Tudela, looking everywhere in this synagogue for a sign. I even went to Egypt, to the small island where the Ari is said to have spent time in a cave as a young man. I found the cave: I searched every inch of it with great reverence, but it was to no avail. I’m tired now.’

Mina shook her head, dispirited. The old man rose to his feet.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help. Here’s my phone number. Get in touch before you leave Safed. I would love to talk some more about these matters. Maybe I’ve missed something?’

Jack laid a hand on Mina’s slumped shoulder and tried to comfort her, but she was too depressed to listen to him. They thanked Eli and slowly left the synagogue. Mina looked for a last time at the recess where Ari had met the prophet Elijah, and they were out in the cold streets once again.

Mina and Jack strolled aimlessly through the Citadel and the park for two hours. The cold air cleared their minds and numbed their feet. Although Jack was disappointed for Mina that they had not found out more about her research, he was mainly relieved that they would soon be on their way, far from Wheatley’s grasp. They entered an